Colwill, James, Quenda, Caicedo, Palmer: Alonso Issues Five-Man Chelsea Fitness Update For Brighton clash

Previewing Chelsea's Premier League clash against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso has provided some positive fitness updates ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Brighton and Hove Albion.

Enzo Fernandez’s omission from the Chelsea squad in the 2-0 Carabao Cup second-round win over Luton Town on Thursday hogged all the limelight, understandably so given speculation over his imminent transfer to Manchester City.

However, the Argentina international was not the only absentee that evening.

Levi Colwill, Moises Caicedo, Geovany Quenda, and Jordan Henderson were also absent.

In Colwill and Quenda’s cases, Alonso clarified that they were rotated out to get some rest after their long-term injury absences last season.

“With Levi, after his injury last season, he is still in a period where he has to take the right steps; we don’t want to push him too much,” the Spaniard explained.

Colwill was sidelined for almost nine months last season due to a cruciate ligament tear. He missed the majority of the last campaign and only returned to the pitch in late April.

Quenda, on the other hand, spent four months recovering from a fractured metatarsal mid-season. He recovered at Chelsea facilities in London, despite technically still being a Sporting player at the time.

Given the severity of their previous injuries, it makes sense for Alonso to be cautious with their workload early this season.

Caicedo and Marco Palestra missed the first two games of the season due to unspecified minor fitness issues. The latter is understood to need more time to recover, but Caicedo is close to making a return.

“He is hopefully training (on Friday), and we are hopeful that he can be involved (against Brighton). But we need to check. No decision has been made,” said Alonso about Caicedo’s fitness situation.

Chelsea are still waiting for Jordan Henderson to be given the “green light” to play after sustaining a forearm fracture during the World Cup. The veteran midfielder has been seen in training, so hopefully he does not have to wait much longer for his Chelsea debut.

Another player who will make his return against Brighton is Wesley Fofana, who served a two-match suspension in the last two games. The suspension was carried over from his red card against Sunderland on the final day of last season.

Fofana is among Alonso’s most-used players in the pre-season, so his return is a huge boost to the team. He mainly plays on the right side of the back three. His main competition for this spot is therefore Josh Acheampong and perhaps Reece James, who has been occupied with midfield duty.

Alonso raised some eyebrows by keeping Palmer on the pitch until the final whistle against Luton Town, especially after he had just played 80+ minutes in the Fulham win a few days earlier.

The Chelsea ace struggled with injuries, mainly groin issues, throughout last season, so Alonso was expected to be more cautious with Palmer's minutes.

However, Alonso believes the England international has shown enough in pre-season to be ready to play multiple times a week.

“Cole had a great pre-season; he's well prepared, so he's one of the players that can take the 90 minutes,” Alonso explained.

”So we had an idea, depending on the context of the game, but Cole has a very good fitness level in terms of stamina, and now he needs to recover well for Sunday.”